Adding “Open in Atom” In Secondary Menu On A Mac

So recently I purchased my first Mac. After 30+ years of using Microsoft OS’s for the majority of my work I have gone to the other side and purchased a MacBook Pro. It is a great computer, something I may go into with another post. There are UI elements I miss from Windows, some I have found ways to do in iOS and other I have been not so lucky.

One feature I use constantly on my Windows machines which is missing on the MacBook is to right click on a file and choose Notepad++ (or Atom, etc.) to open that file. This is regardless of the file type, I am not referring to file associations to applications here.

Not having this functionality while working on my Mac really slows me down at times. I needed a solution and found one, and would like to share it with you now.

The solution uses an application called Automator. Automator was already installed on my machine, I don’t know if it standard or not. Now that I have done it, the process is quite simple (there is a reference image at the end of the post):

Open Automator

Create a new document of type System

In Library select Files & Folders

This will open options in the next pane

In the next pain select Open Finder Items then drag this into the workflow pane

Within the item you just dragged in is a dropdown labeled: Open With:

Select the application you want to open the folder or file with. I have selected Atom.

At the top of the workflow pane are two dropdown selectors.

The first selector choose, files or folders

The second selector choose, Finder

So it should read, “Service receives selected files or folders in finder“

Save the document with the name that you want displayed in the right-click (secondary) menu

I used “Open with Atom“

That is all there is to it. If you open Finder and right-click on a file or folder you will see the option Open with Atom (or whatever you decide to call it).

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